LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The swarm of police vehicles around Lewis Family Park acted as an active reminder of how much Las Vegas has changed in the eyes of Pastor Troy Martinez, a community leader, who noted the recent surge in teen-related crime.
Martinez, chair of Rebuilding Every City Around Peace (RECAP) Initiative, said he remembered when Lewis Family Park, near Sahara Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, was safer and reacted to a recent fatal shooting involving a teenager as a reminder of the state of the neighborhood.
“Years ago, when my own children were in public school, we saw a great need to keep children safe in the surrounding communities, around those schools where there was the park, the alleys, and homes,” Martinez said.
In the early 2000s, Martinez launched the 10,000 Kids Partnership to help leverage the community to respond and to complement the work of law enforcement to help with children’s safety.
“Over the last 20 years, we have trained and been certified to look at community-based intervention,” he said. “Community-based intervention plays a unique role. If it is predictable, it is preventable. We can see a trajectory of children starting a life of violence. It starts with small things, and it escalates.”
Martinez’s efforts in community-based violence intervention have helped change language in the Bi-Partisan Safer Communities Act and helped get the attention of law enforcement. From Aug. to Oct. Martinez received approximately 40 youth referrals—all of which were violence-related.
“We work directly with the mayor’s office, the county law enforcement hospitals, to make sure we’re working together to keep children safe and to prevent the next violent act,” he said. “The danger we’re seeing right now is an increase in younger and younger children getting involved in open murder, attempted murder, shootings, and it’s alarming.”
8 News Now has reported on six violent crimes in the past three months which have either led to a Las Vegas teen as a victim or facing open murder charges. One juvenile was charged in an accidental fatal shooting of a woman sitting in a car.
“When there’s youth violence, unpredictable, random, sometimes targeted violence, it affects everybody,” Martinez said. “It is frightening to know that your child might be harmed because of another child being willing to use violence or even commit murder.”
Martinez said he has acted to not only help with intervention but to also learn more about how to reduce youth violence, recently attending a LVMPD advocated trip in Boston.
“The police have to wait until after there’s a shooting or murder before they’re called,” he said. “Community-based intervention, we go before there’s a shooting, before there’s a homicide, and prevent it from ever happening. That is the biggest part of the solution to see a safer Las Vegas.”
The Clark County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to an 8 News Now question regarding how many juveniles have been charged with violent crimes, specifically open murder charges in the past year.
